Our Investigations Into Slaughterhouses | Animal Equality

Abuse and Cruelty Happening Behind Closed Doors

Slaughterhouses are some of the cruelest places in the world, causing immense suffering to billions of exploited farmed animals every year. These facilities are also some of the most secretive, hiding their abuse behind closed doors that prove very difficult to open.

Fortunately, our investigators have breached these walls, with our footage showing the reality of these terrible places, where animal abuse is seemingly routine and accepted.

Slaughterhouses around the world try to cover up the painful truth: Millions of farmed animals, including pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, sheep, and fish, are brutally killed every day without compassion or acknowledgment of their suffering.

Stunning methods at slaughterhouses are often ineffective and cause animals terrible agony—they are forced to first watch others die before they themselves are killed while fully conscious.

Aside from this brutality, our investigations have revealed that mistreatment is the norm at slaughterhouses, where violations of health and animal welfare laws and regulations happen frequently.

Animal Equality has been investigating slaughterhouses all over the world for several years, documenting the cruel practices that the meat industry hides from its consumers in Mexico, Brazil, Spain, the U.K., and Italy.

Recently and thanks to our work, public opinion is shifting as more people want regulations that consider the living conditions and treatment of animals condemned to slaughter. The latest news comes from Mexico: After talks with Animal Equality, the Congress of the State of Puebla approved a bill that bans unregulated slaughterhouses and prohibits the slaughter of animals without stunning.

Each day, the lives of farmed animals are changing for the better—all made possible by your support of our mission. With your help, we will continue to release important investigations that reveal what really happens in an industry that exploits animals for food.

Please share this page with all your contacts, so they too will know the truth about the cruelty of farmed animal slaughterhouses.

Recent Animal Equality Investigations Into Slaughterhouses

In June 2021, Animal Equality released an investigation documenting what happens to pigs inside an Italian slaughterhouse, revealing the terrible cruelty that animals endure. The investigation was filmed at Zema Srl slaughterhouse located in the province of Cremona in northern Italy—a facility known for its “Excellence Made in Italy” marketing, both in Italy and abroad

In Brazil, Animal Equality released an investigation in June 2021 into the country’s meat industry and its practice of slaughtering pregnant cows. An accompanying public petition asks Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture to ban the killing of pregnant animals. About half of the cows slaughtered in Brazil are females, and when they are pregnant, it causes intense suffering for both the cows and their unborn calves.

In February 2021, Animal Equality released undercover footage from a slaughter facility operated by The Scottish Salmon Company, a supplier of major U.K. supermarkets, as well as numerous international retailers, including in the United States. The pioneering footage, shot by an undercover investigator, is the first of its kind to be released in the U.K. and shows the brutal nature in which farmed salmon are killed.

In 2020, Animal Equality released two investigations into wet markets, showing the brutality of these places. In April and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Animal Equality launched an international campaign to ban wet markets across the world, with a petition addressed to the United Nations surpassing 590,000 signatures.

In November, Animal Equality showed that China’s wet markets were still in operation. The footage was filmed in China in May 2020, with the help of local activists, and reveals that despite the pandemic, live animal markets continue to sell exotic animals, dangerously bringing together species that in nature would never live together.

Animal Equality released an investigation in November of 2019 focusing on Mexico’s illegal backyard slaughterhouses and bringing to light the cruel treatment and slaughter of lambs and sheep.

Also in November 2019, an investigation from Animal Equality filmed inside a British sheep slaughterhouse was released detailing unimaginable cruelty and immense suffering at Farmers Fresh Wales, a supplier for customers in the U.K. and across continental Europe.

An investigation of a turkey slaughterhouse in Spain in 2019—a facility that slaughters 250,000 animals a week for export to the United States on Thanksgiving—shows that the last hours of the turkeys’ lives are filled with cruelty. More than a million turkeys lose their lives during packing and transport.

By replacing animal products with ethical, affordable, and delicious plant-based options, we can improve our food system for both people and animals. 

Fortunately, starting a plant-based transition is easier than ever. With a plethora of options lining grocery store shelves and countless recipes accessible online, millions of Americans have already joined the plant-based movement. 

Visit Love Veg To get started on your life-changing journey, and rest assured that lives will be spared because of your compassionate choice.